Sunday, April 29, 2007

I've been doing a lot of work with Google software lately and I find them to be so useful. When my wife was starting to get "confused" as to when I had appointments and meetings - even though I am officially on leave, I thought I would set up a Google calendar of events and share it with her. Then she will be able to see when I have different meetings and classes. Yes, we have Outlook, but she can't view it real time and if I print a calendar out at the beginning of the month and add an event, I have to keep printing revised versions to hang on my refrigerator.

BUT HERE IS THE COOLEST THING ABOUT GOOGLE CALENDAR!

You have the option to set reminders about your upcoming events. One of the methods of reminding you is to text message your cell phone!! I was so excited when I learned that!! I am so forgetful sometimes with all the things I have to do that the text message is a life saver. I have set it to remind me of an online discussion being held May 1st which I am to participate. So Now I have no excuse about forgetting! :-) Of course, it is possible that I leave my cell phone in the car and never see the text message. BEG

Royalty Free Visuals and Audio

Royaltyfreemusic.com – Royalty Free Music has some clips available free of charge as well as libraries of music for purchase.

Music.Download.com – Download free music clips for classroom use only. Download.com contracts with artists for use of music in non-commercial projects. For publishing to the Internet, the artist’s permission is required.

http://www.jamendo.com - More royalty free music. You are free to use this in your presentations on and off the web but you must cite the artist and be sure you don't make it appear they are sponsoring your production.

http://www.ccmixter.com - More royalty free music. You are free to use this in your presentations on and off the web but you must cite the artist and be sure you don't make it appear they are sponsoring your production.

Editing Software – For Purchase

Ulead Studio – Ulead is a complete editing suite with easy to use interface for about $45 for educators. Ulead is available for Windows only.

Pinnacle Studio – Pinnacle is a robust editing suite that is also easy to use for around $80 for educators. Pinnacle is available for Windows only.

Frames – Frames is a program from Tech 4 Learning that will “stitch” together still pictures to create an animated movie. It costs $45 and also comes bundled with the Clay Animation Kit from Tech 4 Learning.

VlogIt! - VlogIt is the PREMIERE VodCast editor. It is specifically designed to create a Video Podcast. It comes with wonderful, high impact features and it is only $30 from Adobe. I highly recommend this product over any video editor if you specifically want to just do video podcasts. Even if you want to do more robust video editing, it is worth the additional money to have this available. Students and teachers quickly and easily learn to use the drag and drop features to build great video presentations. It creates Flash Videos for publication. VlogIt also has a service which you can publish your VodCast with just a click of a button. This is an extra cost.

Monday, April 23, 2007

MICCA 2007 is this week and I have been working hard on the presentation about VodCasts with Kerri Cole. Part of our presentation is to show how easy it is to use Blogger and Google Video to post and syndicate Vodcasts. So I decided to create this blog site to use in the presentation. It is also the progression of the training series I started a couple years ago at school called, "Tech Time With Tony". I created a few videos about how to use MS FrontPage to create a professional portfolio. Of course that was before blogging became so mainstreem. I would certainly recommend to professionals to use a blog site as a portfolio of their work. It just makes sense.
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About Me

As Technology Resource Teacher I work with teachers to develop lesson and unit plans which integrate educational technologies.
What I really enjoy is helping teachers engage students in learning as they use their digital tools.

My Overriding Philosophy

“Teachers should strive to bring the classroom into the world of the student. All too often, we force the student into the world of the classroom. Today’s students’ brains are not wired to sit in hard plastic chairs and write with a pen or pencil. No student goes home and takes out a note pad, writes a note to a friend, stuffs it into an envelope with a stamp and puts it in the mail. Students are digital natives and want to use the tools they use every day for their acquisition of knowledge.”